Category Archives: Holidays

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It is almost January. You know what that means? Resolution time. That’s right. People everywhere are thinking about what their New Year’s resolutions are going to be this year. Lose 15 pounds. Spend time gardening. Read 50 books this year. Volunteer more often.

There is a wide variety of things that people will resolve to do in the New Year. You know what? There will also be a wide variety of things that people will give up on this year. I think it is interesting how serious we can be about something in January and how bored with it we can be by the time March comes. I think one of the reasons that we do this is because every year we try to add something to our life. For real – how many of us need one more thing in our life?

If we want to lose weight that means we now have to add working out to our to-do list. If we want to spend more time gardening, then on Saturdays we have to start this that to our weekend schedule. Reading more books means finding ones you want to read and then actually doing it. And volunteering at different places means putting in the effort and time to do this. All things that are normal resolutions, and all things that we have to add to our lives.

Here is a revolutionary idea for ya. Why not resolve to subtract something for your life? Why not make a resolution to take something out of your life. It is just so crazy and off the wall, it just might work.

“This year I’m going to resolve to not go to every movie that comes out in the theatre.” “I’m not going to worry about money. I’ve made it this far with God providing, I know He’ll provide again this year.” “I’m going to unplug the computer after dinner is done at night. Then I’ll be able to have time for focus on my family more, and not be distracted by Facebook.”

Does this make any sense? Get rid of something. I bet if you get rid of something you don’t actually like doing or don’t need to do anymore, by the time March hits you won’t be giving up on it, but relishing the fact that you are loving not being bothered by it anymore.

So this January, don’t commit to doing one more thing; commit to doing one less.

So Saturday was Christmas. The season of giving. Although it is the season of giving, that also means something else that we don’t often think about…

Its kind of like the outcome of a game. If someone wins, that means that someone has to lose. The same goes for giving gifts. If someone gives one, someone has to receive it. When one person gives a gift, someone receives that exact gift.

During Christmas I often think about what to buy my wife, what my daughter might like, what could possibly make my mom cry when she opens it. Giving can be really fun. (Side note: I sometimes find that Christians are particularly more apt to enjoy giving gifts than others. But that is just my opinion.) And yet I don’t often think about how I am going to react when I get a gift.

And although I love getting gifts for Christmas, I sometimes have a hard time receiving them from God. If my wife gives me a gift – I love it. If my parents get me one – I take it. If friends buy me a present – I’ve got no qualms about opening it.

Yet, sometimes I don’t feel worthy to get a gift from God because, well . . . I’m just not worthy. If I get a gift from a fellow, fallen human being that is one thing. But a gift from the perfect, almighty Creator the whole world?! Well, that is a whole other thing there!

At this point in the gam I don’t think I’m very good at receiving gifts from the Father, but I’m working on it. What about you?

I wanted to post this video on here as a way of saying Merry Christmas, because I love how blatant Charles Schulz was here. And the way that things get so quiet on the video I think speaks so much. But Benjer McVeigh already did today at Jesus and Teenagers. So if you watched his, don’t bother with mine. :)

And as I was going through my Google Reader today, I saw this one posted by Jason Stasyszen at Connecting to Impact, and it was too funny not to share as well. I think this is fake, but oh how priceless it would be if this guy was real!